King Triton Carousel

King Triton's Carousel (Soon to Be Jessie's Critter Carousel)

The King Triton Carousel closed in March, 2018. It is being re-themed into Jessie's Critter Carousel, inspired by Disney·Pixar's Toy Story 2 and scheduled to re-open in 2019

Meanwhile, here's a look back at the older version:

King Triton is a character from The Little Mermaid, who is Ariel's father. The carousel that carries his name takes its theme from Ariel's undersea world. Every one of its 56 animals is a sea creature.

The carousel is pretty and cheerful and a good place to take a photograph. Anyone who likes carousels and merry go rounds will enjoy it, and it's a good ride to hop on if the kids are getting antsy after standing in too many lines. It's a good place for baby's first Disney ride, too.

What You Need to Know about King Triton's Carousel

Location: Pixar Pier

Rating: ★

Restrictions: No height restrictions

Ride Time: 2 minutes

Recommended for: This ride is good for small children.

Fun Factor: Moderate

Wait Factor: The lowest of any California...MORE Adventure ride and seldom longer than five minutes.

Fear Factor: Low

Herky-Jerky Factor: Low

Nausea Factor: Low, unless you get dizzy easily.

Seating: Instead of horses, this carousel has sea creatures: dolphins, fish, and otters. It also has a couple of bench seats.

Accessibility: You'll have to transfer from your wheelchair or ECV to the ride vehicle by yourself or with help from your traveling companions. Enter with everyone else, go to the loading area and ask a cast member for help. Service animals are not allowed.

How to Have More Fun on King Triton's Carousel

Like most rides at Paradise Pier, this one closes early on days when there's a World of Color show. Check the daily schedule to be sure you don't wait too long and miss out.

You can stand next to your child or ride next to them. Even though they will have a seatbelt, it's a good idea to hang onto them, too.

If you don't want to ride up and down, you can sit on one of the water chariots.

Look for a tiny hidden Mickey in the scroll work at the lower left corner of the Cast Member control console.

Online reviewers at Yelp give King Triton's Carousel a high rating, even though I ranked it last among all Disney California Adventure rides. Most of them are parents of small children who love it so much that it's hard to get them to leave. Read some of their reviews to see what they think.

Fun Facts About King Triton's Carousel

••• King Triton's Carousel. Loren Javier/Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0

The carousel has 56 animals and two chariots. Among the animals you'll find on it are dancing dolphins, sea lions, whales, sea otters, and flying fish. It also has several of the orange-colored Garibaldi fish that are often seen along the Southern California coast. The only horses you'll find on it are the aquatic kind: seahorses. While you may find more than one of each species, no two of the hand-carved creatures are exactly alike.

The carousel was manufactured by the same company that made the horses Walt Disney added to the King Arthur Carrousel. Back then, it was called D. H. Morgan Manufacturing. Shortly after they built the King Triton Carousel in 2001, it became Chance Rides.

The carousel's canopy is decorated with paintings of sixteen classic California piers, including Santa Monica, where the early twentieth-century Looff carousel still operates.

Why is it called a carousel and not a merry-go-round? Most people say carousels have only horses and merry-go-rounds have...MORE a variety of creatures, but that doesn't work here. Others (including my tour guide on the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour) say it's about the direction of rotation. Carousels turn counterclockwise, and merry-go-rounds turn clockwise. By that definition, this is indeed a carousel.